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Phil’s Chamaecyparis Obtusa

Bar a few minor changes, that should be all the faffing about finished. Hope you like the different theme. I think it suits a photo based blog better.

To get the ball rolling again, here is a Chamaecyparis Obtusa that Phil collected from a garden a few days ago. I was at his place the other night and he insisted on getting the lamp out for a look in the dark. Plans are afoot to get it reduced in height and thinned out.

When he told me he had collected two Obtusa Chamae that where 6′ tall, I expected the inner branch structure to be bare. How wrong I was! Branches to the base on this one and foliage right to the trunk. Best of all, being a landscape gardener, he got paid for taking them out!! 🙂 The other one has been put in a flower bed for a year or so.

The faded original label was still attached. It states that its a Nana Gracilis. I always thought that this was the small variety and the label says a top height of 80 cm. At over twice that height, I think this may just be obtusa.

I love this variety for bonsai but have yet to find one worth keeping for myself. Phil has a decent start with this one, albeit limited style wise. If he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it off his hands.

Here are a few that appeared on Facebook and other online sources. I have searched a few times to see what can be achieved with this species.

I think you may be right about it being the species rather than a variety , the majority of ‘ nana gracilis ‘ in the horticultural trade seem to be grafted which results in those very typical swollen, and often angled, bases that you see in lots of garden origin bonsai , can be good but always seems to need some sort of carving on the fat base. It will interesting to see how this develops , is there an obvious place to make the height reduction ?